Hero Homeless Migrant Rewarded After Rescuing Drowning Woman in Rome

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May 19, 2015

A homeless, undocumented immigrant is being hailed as a hero, and given a residency permit, after saving a drowning woman in Rome.

Sobuj Khalifa, raced down the banks of the Tiber River when he saw the woman floating in the water. He called out to people on the Sublicio bridge to phone for help right before he dived in and pulled the woman to safety.

The Bangladeshi migrant, scraping by on $55 a week, selling roses in restaurants and umbrellas on the street, became an instant hero in the Eternal City. Rome’s mayor called Khalifa to personally thank him for his heroism, and authorities gave him a one-year residency permit to stay in the city legally.

Frustrated Man Opens His Own Bank: The Wild Success of “Bank On Dave”

And the local lifesaving story is getting a lot of play across the Mideast and South Asia. Both Arab and Jewish media are highlighting the fact that a Muslim man saved the life of an Israeli woman living in Rome.

(READ more in the Telegraph)

Photo credits: State Police in Rome; and Gobbler, CC

At 92, She Feels Young Again, Takes Joy Ride in Fave WWII Fighter Plane (WATCH)

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Terry Turner

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May 19, 2015

Joy Lofthouse hasn’t flown a fighter plane since she was in her 20s. Taking the controls of the iconic Spitfire recently made the 92-year-old pilot feel “young” again.

As she took to the skies for the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, Lofthouse declared that flying the Spitfire was “the nearest thing to having wings of her own.”

Lofthouse and hundreds of other women flying for the UK’s Air Transport Authority in World War II delivered planes from factories to air bases, freeing combat pilots to fight. By the time the war ended, Lofthouse was experienced in piloting 18 different kinds of aircrafts, but her favorite was always the Spitfire.

(WATCH the video below or READ the full story from BBC)

Photo credits: Airwolfhound, CC, and BBC via YouTube

Johnny Depp Becomes Foster Father to Orphaned Bat

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Ashley Williams

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May 19, 2015

Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp embraced his “batty” side on the movie set of his new sequel by getting to know some tiny winged creatures of the night.

It all happened in Australia after award-winning actor and wildlife advocate Johnny Depp heard about a baby bat discovered orphaned following a recent thunderstorm. After the tiny winged ‘flying fox’ was rescued, Depp agreed to sponsor her, becoming its “foster father.”

The Australian Bat Clinic announced on Facebook that the rescued bat was named “Jackie Sparrow,” an ode to Depp’s onscreen pirate character.

To further show his support of bat rescue and conservation, Depp invited members of the volunteer non-profit rescue group, Bats Qld, to his movie set.

Volunteers Ashley and Paula Fraser introduced Depp, to Fifi, another rescued flying fox.

“It was an amazing opportunity; he was so kind and thoughtful,” Ashley Fraser told Brisbane Times. “It was an absolute pleasure and honor to have met him.”

(READ more at the Brisbane Times)

Photo: (top) Bats Qld; (middle) Australian Bat Clinic & Wildlife Trauma Centre

Watch These People Jumping to the Rescue of Animals

From Gross to Green: Toxic Dump Will Become Solar Farm in San Fran

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Good News Network

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May 19, 2015

Local and federal officials announced plans to build a solar farm at a San Francisco area garbage dump to “serve as a model for innovative ways to combat climate change.”

The 19,000 solar panels planned for the closed-down West Winton Landfill in Hayward will be the signature piece of an unusual four-county effort to equip nearly 200 public buildings — city halls, fire stations, medical facilities — with the solar energy equivalent of powering more than 5,000 homes.

(READ the story in the SF Chronicle)

File Photo from East Coast – Story tip Mike McGinley

Dolls with Disabilities Designed to Make All Kids Feel Special

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Good News Network

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May 19, 2015

A campaign called Toys Like Me started on Facebook has inspired a new line of dolls designed for children with disabilities.

British toy company Makie has officially begun giving parents the option to buy customized dolls with birthmarks, hearing aids, walking aids, and more.

“We put a bunch of things on hold and jumped into designing toy hearing aids, toy walking aids, working out how to do facial birthmarks,” the Makie website declares. “Plus (we) are working on a new 3D printed toy wheelchair, too!”

The Toys Like Me campaign spurred kids and their parents to design toys on their own, using everything from Legos to Barbies, to represent the diverse group of children currently living with disabilities today. Check out the Facebook page and all the uploaded photos.

Photo courtesy of Makie/Facebook.

Ecuador Breaks World Record for Planting Most Tree Species in 8 Hours

By

Terry Turner

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May 19, 2015

Forest-Canopy-PhotoCredit-wackybadger-CC — WackyBadger, CC license

Thousands of people teamed up this weekend to break a world record while doing something good for the earth. They planted the most species (237) of seedlings over an eight hour-period Saturday.

57,512 people in Ecuador planted 765,073 plants at 150 sites, reforesting 5600 acres (2,269 hectares) and snatching the Guinness World Record from a group in the Philippines, who broke the world record last year.

This was the most diverse single-day planting program anywhere in the world, which will soak up carbon dioxide and pump out oxygen.

Ecuador holds another environmentally friendly record — the most plastic bottles recycled in a single week—87,363 pounds.

The nation also aims in 2017 to reach a target of zero deforestation, according to the Guinness World Records organization, which monitored the plantings.

17-Year-Old Blind Pole Vaulter Wins Bronze at State Championship

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Good News Network

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May 18, 2015

Pole vaulting is a tough sport for anyone to master–and it’s that much tougher when you can’t see anything at all.

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Brown fell in love with the sport long before cataracts reduced her vision to a “jigsaw puzzle of light and dark shades.” Even after they did, she found a way to overcome her situation so she could compete.

She told BBC News that she’s able to succeed by counting the seven steps of her left foot upon her approach and listening for the faint sound of a beeper placed on the mat, which alerts her when it’s time to plant the pole and push up.

After competing for two years, finishing in eighth place, then fourth, Brown cleared 3.5 meters.

The high school student proudly accepted her medal with her guide dog Vador by her side.

(WATCH the video above or READ more at BBC News)

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China Makes Jaw-Dropping Cuts to Carbon Emissions in 2015 Equal to UK’s Total Output

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Terry Turner

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May 18, 2015

China is on course to set a world record this year for the largest voluntary reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of any country in history.

In the first four months of the year, China reduced its CO2 emissions by an amount equal to what the entire United Kingdom produced in that same period.

China leads the world in both coal consumption and CO2 emissions, using 48% of the world’s coal since 2010. In recent years, the country has ordered 1,000 coal mines to close and has cut coal imports by 38%.

As a result, coal consumption has gone down 8% and CO2 emissions have dropped by 5 percent so far this year.

Millions of Chinese Crack Down on Polluters, Using App and Government Help

If the decline continues at this rate, China is on track to set the world record for a country cutting CO2 emissions in a single year.

The nation now promises to close the last remaining coal plant in Beijing by the end of next year and slash use of the fossil fuel by 160 million tons over the next five years.

Greenpeace/Energy China crunched the numbers from three different sources to find the results, and found that this is the first time in history any country has reduced both coal use and carbon emissions without an economic downturn.

(READ more at The Independent) Photo by Jonathan Kos-Read, CC

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Girl Raises $15K to Rebuild Parents’ Burned Home After Contractors Fled Without Finishing

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Ashley Williams

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May 18, 2015

It’s been two years since a fire destroyed the De La Sala family’s Tampa, Florida home. Her parents are struggling after their insurance money was paid to a builder who they say “ran off” after completing less than half the job, and leaving sub-contractors unpaid.

“Now my mommy and daddy are stuck trying to come up with enough money to finish it so we can finally get home,” wrote Alyssa De La Sala in a letter to a local radio station.

Over the weekend, the 10-year-old took matters into her own hands and opened up a lemonade stand to try and and raise some funds herself. Working alongside her brother, and with free advertising from the radio hosts, she began selling the drinks along with cupcake she baked herself.

The turnout was so large that police officers were dispatched to help direct traffic.

7-Year-old Makes Viral Video to Aid Buddy Who Lost Toys in a Fire

“She took it upon herself to do something to help mommy and daddy, I don’t think she expected it to be anything like this,” Alyssa’s mother, Jenn De La Sala told WFTS-TV.

For those who couldn’t make it to the lemonade stand, a GoFundMe campaign was created to collect contributions. Between the success of the lemonade stand so far and her GoFundMe campaign, she has raised $15,000.

(WATCH the WFTS video below)

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Children’s Book Grows Into a Tree When You Plant It

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Terry Turner

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May 18, 2015

Kids learn pretty quickly that paper used for books comes from trees.

One children’s book lets kids literally recycle their storybook directly in the ground, where it will once again grow into a tree.

A pair of publishers in Argentina collaborated on Mi Papa Estuvo en la Selva (My Dad Was in the Jungle), a book made with acid-free paper, eco-friendly ink, and jacaranda seeds stitched into the cover.

After a child has had their fill of reading the book, they can plant it in the soil and watch it sprout.

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Bookstore displays across the country are actually designed to display the book as it germinates, with roots running down into a terrarium-style case.

The story was originally published in 2008, but the new Earth-friendly design, made for kids ages 8-12, is meant to show that “trees and children can grow together.”

WATCH the video below to see how it works and READ more at AdWeek

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Two Former Debt Collectors Want to Help Pay Your Medical Bills

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Good News Network

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May 18, 2015

Ironically, two men who worked for decades as medical debt collectors have launched RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit with a goal of raising $14 million to abolish $1 billion of medical debt.

The organizers, Jerry Ashton and Craig Antico, saw the inequities and “couldn’t take it any more.”

“We switched sides and now use the same software systems and data we once used to collect this debt,” they wrote on their website. This time, they will purchase the debt for pennies on the dollar in order to free “good, hard-working responsible people from its stranglehold.”

As newly designated debt buyers, the nonprofit will be able to, for instance, buy a hospital debt worth $5,000 for $50. They have already raised $74,000 in what they believe to be the first effort in the world focused on freeing people from medical debt.

(READ the full story at Metro.US) – Photo courtesy of Bess Adler/Metro

A Simple Iron Fish is Helping Hundreds in Cambodia by Tackling Anemia

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Terry Turner

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May 18, 2015

An iron fish is giving Cambodian families more strength and better health.

Six million Cambodians, about half the population, are currently iron deficient. But the Lucky Iron Fish — a simple lump of metal dropped into cooking pots — is beating anemia, improving strength, boosting energy and improving overall health for families who use it.

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The idea was dreamed up by Canadian scientist Christopher Charles, who’s been running trials with his invention in Cambodia. The fish — a symbol of luck in that culture — is made by local craftsmen from recycled iron.

Families drop the Lucky Iron Fish into boiling soup or water for 10 minutes. Iron leaches out of the fish to enrich the broth for cooking. Used properly, Charles says it can provide 75% of the daily requirement of iron.

The people who’ve taken part in the trials were cured of anemia in just 12 months. Charles now wants to get his Lucky Fish into the hands of one million Cambodian families in the next five years.

(WATCH the Lucky Iron Fish at work in the video below)

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Teen Wins Intel Prize for Keeping Airborne Germs From Spreading on Planes

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Terry Turner

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May 18, 2015

Ever been afraid of catching someone’s cold or flu on an airliner while you’re breathing everyone else’s air? A 17-year-old Canadian teenager has invented a system to keep those germs contained.

Raymond Wang (pictured above, right) took home the top prize of $75,000 Friday in the world’s largest high school science competition for an invention that corrals germs on airplanes.

His ventilation system cuts the number of germs by 5,500% while nearly tripling the amount of fresh air in the cabin– and it only costs about $1,000 per airplane to install.

To do it, he had to teach himself the complicated science of fluid dynamics.

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Right now, the air inside an airliner circulates in two swirls, quickly spreading germs throughout the cabin. Wang designed fin-shaped devices that fit in the air inlets — effectively giving every passenger what he calls a “personalized ventilation zone” that pushes germs out of the cabin before they can spread

You can see the cabin air flow with Wang’s invention in the video below. See more winners of the Intel Fair, here.

(READ more in the Washington Post) – Photos by Intel

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Ozzy Osbourne Sends Big Check to Kids After Seeing Their “Crazy Train” Cover

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Terry Turner

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May 18, 2015

Rock star Ozzy Osbourne was so blown away after seeing some Kentucky kids playing a unique version of his signature song that he sent them a $10,000 donation.

“Myself, my whole family and my fans all loved your rendition of ‘Crazy Train,’” Osbourne wrote in a letter to the Louisville Leopard Percussionists. “Keep up the good work.”

The group is made up of more than 60 kids — age 7-14 — from 48 different schools in the Louisville area. Their percussion version takes the heavy metal hit and transforms it into a multi-textured version using marimbas, bells and drums.

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The Louisville Leopards have already performed onstage with the rock band My Morning Jacket and worked with jazz performers Dave Samuels and Louie Bellson. Their excellent version of Led Zepplin’s Kashmir drew 4 million views and praise from Jimmy Page on Facebook earlier this year.

(WATCH the “Crazy Train” get mellow in the video below or READ more at the Louisville Courier-Journal)

Homepage photo by Portal Focka, CC

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Dramatic Turnaround for Fish and Water Quality in Tampa Bay

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Terry Turner

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May 17, 2015

Great news for foodies who enjoy eating scallops in Florida.

Seagrass beds in Tampa Bay have made a remarkable comeback, recovering from years of pollution and dredging that sullied the water the 1960s and 70s. With water quality plummeting, fish and wildlife populations began to decline.

Now, after two decades of restoration, the folks involved in the revival effort have actually surpassed the goal they set twenty years back.

“I can’t think of another estuary around the county, if not the world, where we’ve seen such a dramatic improvement of water quality,” Peter Clark, CEO of Tampa Bay Watch, told the Tampa Bay Tribune.

The survey last year counted 40,295 acres of healthy seagrass, the most Tampa Bay has seen since 1950 and a 16% improvement over the previous survey completed in 2012.

Fisheries and scallop beds throughout the estuary are bouncing back and luring other marine life to the Bay.

Photo by MsDee, CC

5th Grader Runs Successful Nonprofit– After Homework is Done

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Good News Network

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May 17, 2015

This eleven-year-old is proof that size doesn’t matter when you have a big idea.

Mandi Simon drafted up the business plan for her nonprofit, Simon Says Give, when she was just seven years old. Over the past four years, the organization has thrown birthday parties for 500 kids between the ages of five and twelve who are growing up in poverty.

“I think it is really important for every kid to have one day, or at least a few hours, when it’s all about them and the celebration of their birthday,” Simon told Good News Network. “It’s important for kids to go to a different environment and be able to have fun with their friends– and know that someone outside of their family cares about them.”

Over the past six months, the Jefferson Awards Foundation, who named Simon a GlobeChanger, has helped Mandi and her 40 volunteers grow Simon Says Give from a Minnesota charity into a global venture.

But this mini-philanthropist always does her homework first.

“I plan meetings around my school schedule and just try to balance everything and have a team of people that help me do things while I am in school,” she explains. “We have been asked to speak at a Rotary Club next week and I need to be at school that morning, so two of our team-members are going to attend for me.”

Of the 500 parties that have been organized to date, Mandi has attended 100 of them personally.

“The recognition of being a GlobeChanger has caught the attention of businesses and people that want to help us reach our goals,” she said. “My goal for Simon Says Give is to impact 2 million kids by the year 2022, so we need the support of corporate sponsors to help us do so.”

Check out this video to see how the nonprofit got its early start:

Wrong Turn in the Skies Leads to Accidental Anti-matter Discovery

By

Terry Turner

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May 16, 2015

Antimatter — plentiful in science fiction — is a rare phenomenon in the real world and very difficult to create in a laboratory.

So when a researcher’s airplane made a wrong turn during a thunderstorm and flew straight into a mile-wide cloud, he was surprised to discover antimatter in their midst.

Dr. Joseph Dwyer and the crew spent long minutes trying to find their way out, and it was only after they cleared the storm clouds that the University of New Hampshire physicist was able to check his instruments and discover that he’d found antimatter in the thunderclouds.

When antimatter comes into contact with a particle of normal matter, the two wipe out each other, and it doesn’t stick around long enough for scientists to study it at length.

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Until now, scientists have only theorized that antimatter could exist in a thunderstorm – actually discovering it was nothing short of a major shock.

“This was so strange that we sat on this observation for several years,” Dwyer told the journal Nature. It took him nearly six years before going public with his discovery.

Dwyer is now chasing down antimatter by releasing weather balloons and planning more head-on flights into storms.

(WATCH the FermiLabs video about antimatter below) – Photo by O.S. Fisher, CC

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Adults Are Using Coloring Books to Combat Stress

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Good News Network

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May 16, 2015

Forget habits like drinking and over-eating–the newest wave in stress relief has arrived in the form of crayons and markers.

Grown-ups everywhere have begun taking part in a phenomenon known as “adult coloring,” using specially designed books that are a bit more complex than those created for children.

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“It allows us to be innocent again, in some respects,” coloring book enthusiast Shyla Jannusch told NBC News.“Coloring is also meditative for me, because I just forget everything else and live in the moment.”

Jannusch said she believes adult coloring books (see some of them here on Amazon) may have become a favorite pastime for adults because it offers a sense of nostalgia. She hosts coloring parties and started her own Facebook group, Coloring for All, to spread the fun.

(WATCH the video below or READ more at NBC News *NOTE: auto-playing audio, adjust your speakers)

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Canadian Company Will Make Student Loan Payments for New Hires

By

Ashley Williams

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May 16, 2015

With graduation in full swing, many young adults are getting ready to head into the ‘real’ world to seek out jobs that can help them pay off their student loans, and now most recently their personal loans if borrowing was done from a lender .

Fortunately for a half dozen new hires this year, a Canadian company is offering to make those student loan payments on their behalf.

SimplyCast, which markets a business communication platform in Nova Scotia, has received more than 100 resumes from applicants responding to an employment ad in a local paper.

Her Student Debt Was Paid in Full After A Bank Heard Her Family Story

SimplyCast President and CEO Saeed El-Darahali personally struggled with student loan debt after graduating with a master’s degree in business administration from Saint Mary’s University. He also struggled with personal loan debt before using quick loans in Denmark when on his semester abroad at university.

He was surprised that no company had offered such an initiative to graduates before. He told the CBC, “Maybe this might be a great opportunity that a private corporation can take some of their wealth and provide it back to their most important asset, their employees.”

(READ more at CBC)

Photo Credits: LendingMemo via CC – Story tip from Julia Frerichs

Tribute to the Blues Legend B.B. King (1925-2015)

By

Terry Turner

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May 15, 2015

Born a sharecropper named Riley B. King in Itta Bena, Mississippi, B.B. King went on to become a millionaire, honored by presidents, who influenced generations of musicians worldwide as the king of blues.

After his parents died, King tried his hand at farming when he was just 14-years-old, but found he could make more money singing in churches and on radio stations around Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.

B-B-King-Lucille-photocredit-Stoned59-cc — Photo by Stoned59, CC

He picked up the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy” King while working as a disc jockey and singer for a Memphis, Tennessee radio station, which he shortened to “Blues Boy” and, eventually, just B.B. King.

By the 1950s, King had landed a record contract, put together a band and began touring the country, performing 342 one-night stands in a single year.

King loved to tell audiences one particular story of the time he played in a roadhouse in Twist, Arkansas in the early 1950s. That night, two men had gotten into an fight, knocked over a kerosene stove, and set the place on fire. King ran outside before realizing he’d left his $30 guitar behind — and had to run back inside to save it.

The men were fighting over a woman named “Lucille.” Every one of King’s guitars since were named Lucille.

During the course of his career, King churned out more than 50 albums, won 15 Grammys, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and became the first bluesman to receive the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award.

Barack_Obama_B-B-King-2012-White-House-Photo — White House Photo

President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — America’s highest civilian honor — in 2006. Six years later, President Barack Obama hosted King and other bluesmen for a performance showcasing the uniquely American music style at the White House (photo above).

King passed away at his home in Las Vegas Thursday from diabetes.

(WATCH more in the CNN video below or READ more at the New York Times)

Photo credit: (top) Tom Beetz, CC

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